The Real Skinny On Brown Bear Hunting

Published: July - 2004

Romania is one of the better choices today for European brown bear. They have many more bears and larger bears than many of the other European destinations offering hunts for this species. In fact, the Romanian bear population is estimated at about 5,600. According to the wildlife biologists and game managers I spoke with there, Romania has been carefully managing its bear population for years to support a hunting program. It currently has an annual bear harvest of about 300 bears.

I hunted in the Carpathian Mountains there this past April with a friend. The Carpathians wind their way through the middle of the country. The Romanian Forestry Department controls large tracts of land there, where it carries out timber-harvesting practices that pay for their game management programs.

Curiously enough, the management of bears began during the reign of Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed after the mid-1990s revolution. It seems Ceausescu loved hunting bears, and during his lifetime took 200 bruin himself. I hunted with one of the guides who used to guide Ceau- sescu. He said that under his rule brown bears were protected from poaching.

In the past, there have been some reports about canned bear hunts in Romania, but I did not see any evidence of that. I spoke with many people there and even had dinner with the wildlife biologist in charge of bear management in Romania. No one I spoke to had any knowledge of canned bear hunting in Romania. I have a background in zoology and could tell from the time I spent with the forest rangers and biologists that they were university educated and had the knowledge and skills necessary to manage conservation programs for wildlife and hunting programs. I could also tell from the behavior of the bears I saw in the woods that they were wild animals. I conclude that the reports of canned bear hunting in Romania are simply false rumors.

I hunted three different areas in the Carpathians and never saw a fence or........(continued)